Unspent EU farm aid to go to Africa

The World Bank has estimated that about 6 billion euros is needed in short-term aid to help poor countries face the global food and fuel price crisis.

"The EU really can give a boost to
agriculture in developing countries," European Commission
President Jose Manuel Barroso said on the first day of a meeting of
G8 rich nations' leaders in northern Japan, where soaring food prices
are high on the agenda. The EU executive has previously outlined its
intention of taking up to 1 billion euros of unspent EU farm
subsidies between now and the end of 2009 and using the money for a
fund for seed and fertiliser and other agriculture projects in
Africa. That money will come on top of 550 million euros that the EU
has freed up in emergency aid in response to the food crisis.
The new proposal will have to be
approved by ministers from the EU's 27 countries and the European
Parliament, and the new fund could begin operating from January, EU
officials have said.
Europe's Common Agricultural Policy
eats up more than 40 billion euros a year in subsidies and other farm
spending.
The G8 in 2005 agreed to double aid to
Africa by 2010 as part of a wider drive to alleviate global poverty,
but a compliance panel has found that under current spending plans
the group will fall $40 billion short of its target.